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Niemeyer Soares, Oscar

Niemeyer Soares, Oscar (ooskär' nē'mīur sooä'rus) [key], 1907–, Brazil's foremost 20th-century architect, b. Rio de Janeiro. Influenced by Le Corbusier, Niemeyer developed an architecture noted for its daring conception, purity of line, and formal lyricism; it is frequently characterized by curving forms and soaring spans of reinforced concrete. He is often credited with bringing sensuality into modernist architecture. He was one of the chief collaborators in the design of the ministry of education in Rio de Janeiro (1937–43). With Lúcio Costa and P. L. Wiener, Niemeyer designed the Brazilian Pavilion for the New York World's Fair in 1939. For Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte, he planned several major buildings. In 1947 he collaborated on the design for the UN headquarters in New York City. Niemeyer directed the creation of Brazil's new capital, Brasília (1950–60), within Costa's master plan. His remarkable original work on this project brought him enormous acclaim and it is widely considered his masterpiece. Later buildings include the headquarters for the French Communist party in Paris (1965), the Mondadori Publishing House in Milan (1968), and the Museum of Contemporary Art outside Rio (1996). In 1988 Niemeyer was awarded the Pritzker Prize.

See his memoir, Curves of Time (tr. 2000); biographical studies by S. Papadaki (1960) and R. Spade, ed. (1971); studies by D. K. Underwood (1994) and M. Salvaing (2002).